Silk Road was one of the most popular markets on the darknet for drugs and stuff, and was permanently shut down by FBI in 2013. The operation led to the arrest of the owners and the closure of the sites. Millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin were also seized.
In the following years, the US government auctioned these digital currencies on the US Marshals Service website. Years later, in 2020, it seems that the ghost of Silk Road remains.
In accordance with blockchain tracker Elliptic, about $1 billion in Bitcoin that likely came from Silk Road appears to be switching wallets (Bloomberg).
In particular, about 69.369 Bitcoin were transferred from a wallet that can be connected to the Silk Road. And this wallet is associated with an account that is the fourth richest Bitcoin address in the world, according to BitInfoCharts.
It is not clear whether the 69 thousand Bitcoins are transferred by law enforcement, the owner of Silk Road or a dealer. However, according to Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, the reason may be precautionary security measures.
Why the sudden large movement of funds? A copy of the encrypted wallet file is reportedly being circulated – if someone cracked the Password they could seize the bitcoins. The owner of the wallet has perhaps moved the BTC to a new wallet to prevent this.
- Tom Robinson (@tomrobin) November 3, 2020
Robinson reported earlier today that “A copy of the wallet's encrypted file is reportedly circulating – if someone cracks the code accesss could grab the Bitcoins. The owner of the wallet may have moved the BTC to a new wallet to prevent this.”
I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that there is a fair chance that these are Ross Ulbricht's bitcoins. Ross is currently serving a double life sentence for his role in creating the Silk Road. Whether they are still under his control is another matter.
- Tom Robinson (@tomrobin) November 4, 2020
Robinson speculated that these may have belonged to Ross Ulbricht, one of the co-founders of Silk Road, who is serving a life sentence in prison. However, from a realistic point of view, it would be unlikely that Ulbricht would have made this move from prison.
